A set of economic arrangements which developed
in the 19th-c in Western societies following the Industrial Revolution, though
with antecedents in other societies, notably 11th-c China. The concept derives
from the writings of Marx, and rests upon the private ownership of the means of
production by the capitalist class, or bourgeoisie. The workers, or
proletariat, own nothing but their labour, and although free to sell their
labour in the market, they are dependent upon the capitalist class which
exploits them by appropriating the surplus value created by their labour.

Non-Marxist economists define capitalism as an
economic system in which most property is privately owned and goods are sold
freely in a competitive market, but without reference to exploitation, except
where monopoly situations occur. capitalism may be an ideological stance: Marx
saw it as one stage in a historical process, finally being replaced by
socialism. It has been the most productive economic system to date, although it
has brought with it massive environmental (eg pollution) and social (eg
unemployment) problems.